A Tale of Two Cities was written by the famous English writer Charles Dickens. The tale is mainly about the French Revolution in 1789, where the poor rose up against the king and the nobles. Dickens showed deep sympathy for the poor and deep hatred for the cruelty of the upper class, though he wrote quite a lot about the love triangle between Lucie, Charles and Sydney.
In this novel, Dickens wrote some lively characters like Sydney and those crazy revolutionaries. In this tale, we can’t see any absolute roles. Charles, though he’s a brave and good man, obviously he hasn’t as much ability as Sydney. Sydney, a typical tragic(悲剧的) man, a man like him, usually has great ability. But he has some weak points on characters and the worst is that he always loves a woman he shouldn’t love and 99.99% die for her at last in an extremely heroic or tragic way. The revolutionaries are not as full of justice as usual. They get mad when they can get revenge(报复) for their unfair treatment. The fire of hatred burns everything. When they’re at the bottom of the society, they’re calling for justice, for fair treatment, for freedom, but when they’re in charge of the society, their world is up-side-down. They hate everything that is connected to the very people against them, even including Charles’ wife, Dr. Manette’s daughter. So these men have no difference from those former governors at heart.
Though Dickens told us how the authority is recycling over and over again in some way, the novel is about something good. Love from Sydney to Lucie is one of the only few bright points in the novel and it’s really great. A man can sacrifice his life to save his lover’s husband. He doesn’t have any personal purpose and just for his lover’s happiness. So Dickens may imply us, only love can solve the problems between people, between the poor and the rich, love is everything.. A Tale of Two Cities is mainly about .
| A．Charles Dickens | B．the French Revolution |
| C．deep sympathy | D．the upper class |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Charles is as brave and able as Sydney. |
| B．Sydney loves a woman he shouldn’t love. |
| C．The revolutionaries show justice as usual. |
| D．Charles hates his wife, Dr. Manette’s daughter. |
The underlined phrase “these men” in Paragraph 2 most probably refers to “ ”.
| A．Charles and Sydney | B．the nobles |
| C．the revolutionaries | D．former governors |
What may Dickens really want to imply us readers?
| A．The authority is changing over and over again. |
| B．The novel is about something good only. |
| C．A great man can sacrifice his life for his lover. |
| D．Only love can settle the problems between people. |
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity （繁荣）. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit（追求）of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which only values the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among those who are against competition are young people who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by them is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot.
Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear can we discover a new meaning in competition.What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Competition! Why Friends Turn into Enemies |
| B．Competition! What Self-respect Depends on |
| C．New Meaning Found in Competition |
| D．Two Mistaken Beliefs about Competition |
Why do some young people suffering from competitive pressures seek failure?
| A．Because they are aware that they will not succeed in competition. |
| B．Because they don’t think it worthwhile to compete with others. |
| C．Because they are afraid that they would not be valued if they lost. |
| D．Because they are fed up with the great efforts needed to compete with others. |
Which of the following will the author probably agree with?
| A．One should treat competition as a life-and-death affair. |
| B．One should make every effort to avoid competition. |
| C．One should get rid of the fear of failure in competition. |
| D．One should be given rewards after competing with others. |
The true competitors and those with a desire to fail both believe ________.
| A．one’s self-worth comes from how well he performs in comparison with others |
| B．one’s dream can be achieved if he has mastered good communication skills |
| C．one’s failure happens when he is suffering from emotional problems |
| D．one’s success is based on how hard he has tried |
Some people collect stamps. Other people collect works of art or musical instruments. But a man in the American state of Maryland collects secrets.
For the past 10 years, people have been sending Frank Warren postcards and other objects with secrets written on them. He now has a million secrets. “It’s a drawing of a lift. And the secret says: ‘I feel guilty when I take lifts for one floor, so I limp when I get out.’” Frank said.
Ten years ago, Mr. Warren created an art project called PostSecret. People then began to send him postcards, other objects and emails telling their secrets. Every Sunday, he chooses 10 secrets and puts them on the website.
Mr. Warren says he created PostSecret so people could share their secrets in a safe place. “I was struggling with secrets in my own life. And it was by creating this safe place where others could share their secrets with me, I think that space was something I needed just as much as they did.”
He has published six books full of the secrets people have shared with him. One secret in each book is his. Eric Perry delivers mail for the U.S. Postal Service. He has brought thousands of secrets to Frank’s home over the past three years. “I have a couple of the books that Frank’s given me and I’ve read them all and my family has read them all and it’s wild!”
The project itself was once one of Frank’s secrets. His wife Jan didn’t know exactly what he was doing until the first book was published. The publisher told him that the address was going to be on the book, and he refused. However, the address was there just because of the contract between them. Actually Warren wasn’t very happy about that.
Some people tell Frank of their secret desire to kill themselves. So he and the PostSecret community have raised more than $1 million to help prevent suicides（自杀）.It is implied in Mr. Warren’s words in Paragraph 2 that ________.
| A．the person was ashamed of using an elevator for one floor |
| B．Americans are not allowed to use an elevator for one floor |
| C．the person felt guilty when pretending to be a disabled one |
| D．he has received different secrets about using an elevator |
Mr. Warren created PostSecret in order to ________.
| A．satisfy his curiosity about others’ secrets |
| B．collect more materials for his series of books |
| C．offer a safe place for people to share their secrets |
| D．earn a lot of money by sharing others’ secrets online |
What do we know about Eric Perry from the passage?
| A．His family are eager to collect the books written by Frank. |
| B．His main job is to deliver mails and postcards for Frank. |
| C．He has been a postman who has a great many secrets. |
| D．He has developed a good relationship with Frank. |
What was Mr. Warren’s secret according to the passage?
| A．He once took the lift only for one floor. |
| B．He is interested in collecting others’ secrets. |
| C．He created an art project without telling his wife. |
| D．He helped prevent others from committing suicides. |
Thanks to a young waiter, I recently found a friend of 20 years was once a yo-yo virtuoso（大师）.
“Oh, stop it!” Jackie said when I started laughing during our dinner. “I was, too. And I knew how to ‘Walk the Dog.’”
“Wow, really?” said our waiter, Jumario Simmons, flashing a big smile at us.
“Don’t encourage her,” I said.
“What else could you do?” he asked.
“I did ‘Round the World,’” Jackie said, now ignoring me completely. “That was cradle（婴儿时期的）thing, too.”
I’d asked Jumario what he did when he wasn’t waiting on tables. The 24-year-old waiter was so smart that I knew there had to be more to his story. It turns out that he won a regional yo-yo competition last year. He also gives free lessons to kids. “It gives them something to do,” Jumario said. “Keeps them off the streets.”
One of the great things about eating out is the table talk with strangers, which reminds us that everyone has a life and a name. But the other day I heard that some restaurants are ending this talk between diners and servers. I listened to the reporter describe how their improvements are allowing customers to text orders from their tables to speed up service.
The reporter got my attention with this sentence “Five minutes after typing ‘I’m at table 3’, a meal arrives at the table.” But there wasn’t a “please” with this order, which should have been a request. If you’ve ever waited on tables, you know that the last thing you need is yet another way for a customer to be unpleasant.
Most servers are often mediating（调解）between customers’ requests for substitutions and overworked cooks’ accusations of treason（背叛）. Except at high-end restaurants, servers also have to walk back and forth like mothers of preschoolers so that we might consider them worthy of a large enough tip to lift their pay to minimum wage.
Texting a server from a table a few feet away is equal to moving our fingers and shouting, “Hey, you!” It was rude in 1957, and it’s rude now. You won’t ever find me texting a waiter or waitress.What do we know from the text?
| A．The waiter knows Jackie well. |
| B．The waiter is good at playing yo-yo. |
| C．Jackie plays yo-yo in her spare time. |
| D．The author has a great interest in playing yo-yo. |
Some restaurants allow diners to text a server from a table to ________.
| A．improve their service |
| B．reduce the cost of service |
| C．show respect for diners |
| D．stop talks between diners and servers |
What’s the last but one paragraph mainly about?
| A．The pay of servers. |
| B．The work of servers. |
| C．The customers’ request. |
| D．The work of mothers of preschoolers. |
From the passage, the author’s attitude towards texting a server from a table is ________.
| A．indifferent | B．positive |
| C．curious | D．negative |
With online courses, anyone can gain knowledge in any field of interest for free. All you need is a computer, laptop or Smartphone, internet connection and a self-made schedule. You can even get a certificate on completing the course.
Udemy
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iTunes U
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Skillfeed
If you are looking to learning a new skill, or improving on your skills in Photoshop, or HTML, it offers unlimited access to high-quality video courses from a worldwide community of instructors. You have a month’s free trial, after which you will pay a monthly fee to gain unlimited access to all courses. See more at https://skillfeed.com
Academic Earth
It has linked to over 750 online courses and 8,500 individual online lectures, giving students of all ages access to college courses they may otherwise never experience. Whether learning existing coursework, or learning for the sake of learning, anyone has the freedom to learn at their own pace from world-famous experts, without being charged more. Learn more at http://academicearth.com
UC Berkeley
It offers courses in bioengineering, Japanese, legal studies and public health. Since they are recordings of actual lectures, they lack lecture notes and extra materials. However, each course has audio recordings of lectures via iTunes or video recordings of lectures via YouTube. Learn more at https://ucberkeley.comLearners who choose Skillfeed need to ________.
| A．equip themselves with the ability to use the computer |
| B．pay some fee if they want to continue after a month |
| C．have some knowledge of the design of website |
| D．learn to upload their own high-quality video |
We can learn from the passage that Academic Earth ________.
| A．charges learners nothing for any course |
| B．has many lectures given by 8,500 lecturers |
| C．provides college courses mainly to young men |
| D．offers college courses at the learners’ convenience |
If you want to improve your skill of Japanese language, you can visit ________.
| A．https://skillfeed.com |
| B．https://ucberkeley.com |
| C．https://udemy.com |
| D．https://iTunesU.com |
Money has always complicated our social lives. A question in October from a woman wondering whether she should attend her neighbors’ holiday parties broke my heart: “I am not able to do the same in return, and I just feel like a freeloader to do so，” she wrote. “I’m not even in a position this year to take an appropriate thankyou gift with me.” I told her to go, of course.
Meanwhile, hosts worried about the costs of entertaining — the hosts who write to me, anyway. On the other hand, the hosts that guests write to me about have taken some extreme measures to reduce the cost of their hospitality. These range from a dinner party where a relative of the host explained how expensive the steaks were and “rather pointedly suggested” that the letter writer “make a financial contribution” to the cost of dinner, to some Cape Cod homeowners who invited a couple to spend a weekend with them — as long as they brought their own food, bottled water, and toilet paper.
Weddings and other special events always create extra sources of stress, worsened by the fact that people rarely want to talk honestly about their money situations. One couple chose to have only a civil wedding ceremony for financial reasons and wondered how to tell people this without going into too much detail. A sixtysomething couple needed to cut back on Christmas gifts to their children but weren’t sure how to tell them about it. People who had been laid off wondered how to notify friends, respond to inquiries about their job search, and compete with former colleagues for positions.
If you are searching for the answers to them, write to me—an advice columnist.
The underlined word “freeloader” in the 1st paragraph showed the woman’s ________．
| A．disapproval | B．happiness |
| C．confusion | D．agreement |
What bothered the hosts mentioned in Paragraph 2 most in their social lives?
| A．Steaks. | B．Entertainment. |
| C．Cost. | D．Thankyou gifts. |
What would you be expected to do if you were invited to spend a weekend with some Cape Cod homeowners?
| A．Ask someone for advice. |
| B．Get your food and water ready. |
| C．Bring a bottle of wine with you. |
| D．Make a financial contribution to the cost. |
What makes the social life even worse?
| A．Weddings and other social events. |
| B．Being laid off and notifying friends. |
| C．Cutting back the costs for lack of money. |
| D．Telling others about their financial troubles. |
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